Cordell & Cordell - Divorce Attorney Office

Was mislead from initial consultation on expectations of pricing, and time frame. Took 8 months to even get to start to see my daughter and when i gave my top dollar that i could not exceed in the consultation i was reassured a worst case scenario "going to court" would generally be less then that if we had to go to court, fast forward to being 12 thousand in and 9 months down the road and then get told 1 single day in court would be expected to be 20,000$ which blows the budget way out of what was talked about at the consultation. had to end up settling just to get out of the financial situation they where putting me in. Contacted them after the fact about additional fees and interest they added after the case closed and had no interest in helping with any of it, just paid it and am warning, if you are in a custody battle do not use them, walk into a local lawyer and tell them you want mo state presumption and you will get better results financially and in results then i received from Cordell & Cordell. They are very polite and professional but the entire business transaction was mislead from the very start. Its hard enough to deal with the family matter on its own, getting baited and taken for a ride with the only people who are helping you in that situation is a hard thing to deal with as well, on one hand they are helping you on the other hand you can see the money flying out the door one $36 dollar email responding with "ill check" then not hearing back from them for days and having to send more emails. My first lawyer assigned to me was not very responsive and ultimately milked alot of money with one or two word responses to emails that ultimately led to having to send more emails getting charged $36 dollars an email. The second lawyer i had did an excellent job of turning the situation around being respectful with my money and the results where ok, we got slightly less then presumption but he did that with a fraction of the money the first lawyer used just to open the case and get to start seeing my daughter. The first lawyer spent 3 times the money before we ever really got into the custody side of things i already had paternity testing done and clearly had a right to be seeing my child, there was no need to have spent 12,000 to get to see my child,but the review and recommendation of not retaining them for litigation is mostly due to the fact i was lied to about expectations of pricing, i will omit using employees names but the gentleman who did the initial consultation gave me a worse case scenario " having to go to court" of around $20,000 for everything, then when we turned to start looking at how to move forward after i started getting visitation. I was told by the first lawyer that 1 single day in court would be equal to what i was told up front the entire case would cost if we had to go to court. It was minor frustrations leading up to that point but once relising your in the middle of this and have spent over half your money already and they know full well one day of court is equal to what was quoted in its entirety makes for a. Very hopeless feeling. i get quotes are just that, a quote. but that is an egregious miscalculation or misunderstanding from the gentleman doing the consultation as i would never had used them in the first if he was honest about there pricing, pointed out in my initial email of frustration to them they have that consultation recorded and should review it but in there eyes they provided service for the money spent and have no intention or interest in helping compensate any financially after getting me on the hook with false pretenses then changing there tune in the middle of the case. Not worth the money or the headache of having to fight the mother of your child and also fight the people who are helping you fight to make sure they are not taking advantage of you in an already stressful time of your life.

The whole experience was a nightmare I wish I never got involved with. During the initial consultation I met with one of their top lawyers who was a very good talker making me feel very comfortable and confident. After the retainer was paid the attorney assigned to my case immediately began telling me the opposite of what I was told during consultation, blew through my retainer in a few days and accumulated thousands more without any contact or input from me. He seemed inexperienced and was the most ineffective representation I could have imagined...never interested in understanding background or details of the case from my perspective. He charged for travel time, waiting around the courts looking for lawyers, and talking to lawyers, but provided no results as I ended up agreeing to everything the opposing counsel requested, including paying all their attorney fees. All this while not one of my concerns were even mentioned in the courtroom. The lie Cordell&Cordell focus on men rights is a pure tactic, and once you pay the retainer you might realize that was the worst decision (legally & financially) you made for your case. They definitely left me worst off than I was before I hired them. This firm will do little to nothing to help your situation, AND WILL charge you massive amounts of money for doing nothing, then threaten to drop the case unless you pay thousands. The positive reviews don't seem authentic...reviews for the St. Charles and Edwardsville offices are even worse...the horror stories pile up...hire at your own risk.

Being kept up to date as far as status and responsiveness from Cordell has been acceptable. I would like to know sooner though without sending follow ups when things are decided and dates set with the court for case activities. As long as they charge honestly and correctly for their time and services, I will be good. Also to make sure I'm not being charged twice for typos when the office is updating my documents and missed updates having to go back and forth to correct them.

Megen Campbell is that person! From the beginning I let her know my goals prior to hiring her. We were behind the 8 ball as I wasn't aware of the situation happening behind my back. She took it personally which showed me stood on the same morale high ground. She never doubted me when we discussed private situations which only grew our trust to the point I could be direct in my expectations and requests, in turn she gave me the negatives of what could happen if we fought for certain situations more than others. She truly took an interest in me during our talks and showed complete empathy towards my situation and in my opinion hyped her up to go to battle to win for me! She's also a straight dog regardless of stature she commands a room like a giant! It's clear when you give her your objectives in reasonable and realistic expectations while being with her she's going to go hard for you! The checks and balances between our relationship was welcomed and excelled as time went on! This is why we pay the professionals! It was clear she was more interested in doing right by me then milking the case for more money and she could've. Instead she went hard for my biggest priority and I allowed her the power to negotiate on my behalf and it was clear she wasn't looking to extend the case farther than it needed to go while beating my goals to achieve my requests. That's rear in this industry. I've seen the other posts but at the end of the day we get what we pay for and I paid for someone that walks into a courtroom and strikes fear into people 4x her size without a doubt she was the best in that room which only instilled confidence in myself. Yes it's expensive but ultimately you hire them to win your main priorities not unreasonable goals. Megen is the absolute best! She takes time to get to know you and work through what actually matters to you. It's not what you want to hear sometimes but she always keeps it real. Hire a 3rd rate lawyer if you want unrealistic goals and a person that always says sure or yes and milks that clock for years. Megen had no intentions of that! Highly recommend Megen if your goal is to win and be confident in your pursuit of happiness at end!

The absolute worst nightmare of my life and cordell and cordell made it soo much worse. I paid premium dollar to get the worst possible representation. I paid 30,000$ on a simple straight forward case where the other party paid 16,000. Not only are they expensive they are worthless. Nevertheless they threatened to drop my case 3 separate times. They hit me with ultimatum that I had 21 days to pay 5000$ trial and pretrial fee or they were dropping from the case after I did that they did it again. They use thier clients. And they do a horrible job. Not my first time in custody court and I will tell you first hand this company as soon as you hire them will run up the cost as fast as they can and make you work for them. They do not work for you they work for money and are in my opinion the worst legal mistake I've ever made